大象传媒

This story was submitted by Alan Welsh, a Radio Cumbria volunteer, on behalf of Winifred Cannon and has been added to the site with her permission.

Winnie was called-up to work in a munitions factory a bus ride from her home in Croydon. She recalls that she was always late as she鈥檚 never been able to get up in the morning.

Winnie鈥檚 job was to fill bomb casings with explosives on a big machine with no safety guards. It was heavy and dangerous work that started at 7am and finished at 7pm. Winnie did get quite a few rests during the working day; unfortunately these were due to air raids! Winnie says air raids made her very good at the 100 yard sprint!

After work, Winnie caught the bus home and walked the short distance from the bus stop to her house. Every night was spent in the local air raid shelter. She recalls that these were awful, it was very frightening and she got very little sleep.

On the walk home from the bus one night, Winnie had to dive to the ground as a German plane strafed the street with machine gun fire. Winnie recalls that was very, very frightening.

In 1945, Winnie eventually left the munitions factory. It wasn鈥檛 the end of the war, no; she was NINE months pregnant and left to have her son. There was no maternity leave in wartime!

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